Multiple I-League clubs skeptical of AIFF's proposed working committee to oversee merger

MANY I-LEAGUE CLUBS have not responded favourably to the apparent gesture from AIFF to seek out a middle ground between IMG-Reliance and the football clubs by forming a working committee to address the merger.

AIFF took the decision to create the working committee in yesterday's Executive Committee meeting with a stated goal to take into account inputs from all Indian football stakeholders, including the clubs from both divisions of the I-League and the franchises from ISL. But Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar FC, who recently pulled out of the upcoming I-League season citing lack of responsiveness to their concerns about the proposed "restructuring of Indian football" from AFF and IMG-R, called it an "eyewash" and a delaying tactic to diffuse any possible dispute from the football clubs.

The proposal asks for a hefty franchise fee for participation in ISL that most I-League clubs cannot afford. And if the clubs can't pay up they are to be forced to be relegated to League 1, the new second-tier league that will begin from 2017-18. This has rubbed most of the clubs in the wrong way, and they see this as an attempt to force them out of their right to play in the top division; something they have earned through merit. 

Mumbai FC have reportedly sent an email to FIFA voicing their concerns about the merger process. The Goan clubs have been vocal about it, and people in the clubs from North-East aren't that pleased either, as made clear by Shillong Lajong coach Thangboi Singto to TFG earlier. At the same time, the big guns of I-League like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC are mostly refraining from complaining as they are likely to get a chance to be a part of this newly-cannonized ISL.